A few things you should know about this calendar: acts are listed here in order of appearance, NOT headliner first and supporting acts after; showtimes listed here are actual set times, not the time doors open. If a listing here says something like ”9 PM-ish,” chances are it’ll run late. Cover charges are those listed on bands’ and venues’ sites: always best to click on the band link provided or go to the venues page for confirmation since we get much of this info weeks in advance. As always, weekly events first followed by the daily listings:

Sundays through May of 2011 the series of free organ concerts at 5:15 PM continues most every week (holidays excepted) at St. Thomas Church, 53rd St. and 5th Ave.

Sundays in November steampunk goddess Bliss Blood of the Moonlighters plays with her new project Evanescent feat. Al Street (of Spacemen 3) on guitar at Bruar Falls starting at 8ish along with featured performers including Jamie Scandal, Craig Robertson, J. Walter Hawkes,Al Duvall, Not Waving But Drowning, the Ukemen and Marni Rice. Essentially, this is Small Beast relocated to Williamsburg. Kudos to Bliss for bringing so much coolness to such an unexpected location.

Stephane Wrembel plays Sundays at Barbes at 9. He’s something of an institution here, plan on arriving EARLY, 45 minutes early isn’t too soon since the whole bar gets packed fast. The guitarist has few if any equals as an interpreter of Django Reinhardt, but it’s where he takes the gypsy jazz influence in his own remarkably original, psychedelic writing – and what he brings to the Django stuff – that makes all the difference. One of the most interesting players in any style of music, anywhere in the world.

Every Sunday the Ear-Regulars, led by trumpeter Jon Kellso and (frequently) guitarist Matt Munisteri play NYC’s only weekly hot jazz session starting around 8 PM at the Ear Inn on Spring St. Hard to believe, in the city that springboarded the careers of thousands of jazz legends, but true. This is by far the best value in town for marquee-caliber jazz: for the price of a drink and a tip for the band, you can see world-famous players (and brilliant obscure ones) you’d usually have to drop $100 for at some big-ticket room. The material is mostly old-time stuff from the 30s and 40s, but the players (especially Kellso and Munisteri, who have a chemistry that goes back several years) push it into some deliciously unexpected places.

Every Sunday, hip-hop MC Big Zoo hosts the long-running End of the Weak rap showcase at the Pyramid, 9 PM, admission $5 before 10, $7 afterward. This is one of the best places to discover some of the hottest under-the-radar hip-hop talent, both short cameos as well as longer sets from both newcomers and established vets.

Mondays at the Fat Cat the Choi Fairbanks String Quartet play a wide repertoire of chamber music from Bach to Shostakovich starting at 7.

Mondays starting a little after 7 PM Howard Williams leads his Jazz Orchestra from the piano at the Garage, 99 7th Ave. S at Grove St. There are also big bands here most every Tuesday at 7.

Mondays at the Jazz Standard it’s all Mingus, whether with the Mingus Orchestra, Big Band or Mingus Dynasty: you know the material and the players are all first rate. Sets 7:30/9:30 PM, $25 and worth it.

Mondays in January the Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra play the Brooklyn Bowl at 6 PM, free

Also Monday nights Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks, a boisterous horn-driven 11-piece 1920s/early 30’s band play Sofia’s Restaurant, downstairs at the Edison Hotel, 221 West 46th Street between Broadway & 8th Ave., 3 sets from 8 to 11, surprisingly cheap $15 cover plus $15 minimum considering what you’re getting. Even before the Flying Neutrinos or the Moonlighters, multi-instrumentalist Giordano was pioneering the oldtimey sound in New York; his long-running residency at the old Cajun on lower 8th Ave. is legendary. He also gets a ton of film work (Giordano wrote the satirical number that Willie Nelson famously sang in Wag the Dog).

Mondays at Tea Lounge in Park Slope at 9 PM trombonist/composer JC Sanford books big band jazz, an exciting, global mix of some of the edgiest large-ensemble sounds around. If you’re anybody in the world of big band jazz and you make it to New York, you end up playing here: what CBGB was to punk, this unlikely spot promises to be to the jazz world. No cover.

Also Mondays in November the Barbes house band, Chicha Libre plays there starting around 9:30. They’ve singlehandedly resurrected an amazing subgenre, chicha, which was popular in the Peruvian Amazon in the late 60s and early 70s. With electric accordion, cuatro, surf guitar and a slinky but boisterous rhythm section, their mix of obscure classics and originals is one of the funnest, most danceable things you’ll witness this year.

Also Mondays in November the Flanks play Pete’s, 9:30 PM. They’re sort of the quintessential Pete’s band, but louder – their virtuosic acoustic rustic Americana rocks this room more than most any band who’s ever played here.

Also Mondays in November Rev. Vince Anderson and his band play Union Pool in Williamsburg, two sets starting around 11 PM. The Rev. is one of the great keyboardists around, equally thrilling on organ or electric piano, an expert at Billy Preston style funk, honkytonk, gospel and blues. He writes very funny, very politically astute, frequently salacious original songs and is one of the most charismatic, intense live performers of our time. It’s a crazy dance party til past three in the morning. Paula Henderson from Burnt Sugar is the lead soloist on baritone sax, with Dave Smith from Smoota and the Fela pit band on trombone, with frequent special guests.

The second and fourth Tuesday of the month there are free organ concerts at half past noon at Central Synagogue, 652 Lexington Ave @ 55th St. curated by celebrated organ adventurer Gail Archer, a global mix of veteran and up-and-coming talent.

Tuesdays in November Balkan brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party play Barbes at 9. Get here as soon as you can as they’re very popular.

Tuesdays Julia Haltigan plays 11th St. Bar at 10 “for the rest of her life.” A nuanced, cleverly lyrical country/Americana chanteuse with a terrific band behind her and a growing catalog of first-class original songs. See her now before it costs you big bucks at the Beacon.

Tuesdays in November (also 12/7 and 12/14), 10 PM Palomar plays Rock Shop in Gowanus, $10. Tuneful female-fronted powerpop/jangle band who were one of the 90s/early zeros best indie label groups. For a band that doesn’t draw on a trendoid crowd (who don’t have to work for a living and can go out any night they want), a Tuesday residency in a distant part of town like this is tough, plus every show here is a benefit for a cause. Get out and support if you like these folks.

Tuesdays in November the Dred Scott Trio play astonishingly smart, dark piano jazz at the smaller room at the Rockwood at midnight.

11/4, 6 PM a screening of Fred Zara’s new documentary film Average Community about Italian-American kids in decaying NJ cities in the punk and hardcore scenes, at the John D. Calandra Italian-American Institute, 25 W 43rd St. (5th/6th Ave.).

11/4, 8 PM, an amazing Middle Eastern-flavored triplebill: vintage Egyptian film music revivalists Zikrayat, rockers Raquy & the Cavemen and then hypnotic groove/trance band Copal playing the cd release for their new one at Drom, $15 adv tix highly rec.

11/4 bluegrass band Hot Rize play their first NYC show in ten years at B.B. King’s, 9 PM, $25 adv tix rec.

11/4, 9 PM DIY rock legend R. Stevie Moore followed by the equally legendary Brute Force playing the cd release show for the reissue of his 1967 debut album (also including bonus tracks including the legendary banned single The King of Fuh, produced by George Harrison), at Secret Project Robot, 210 Kent Ave. (corner of River St., enter through the loading dock), Williamsburg. Does this mean that the bedhead-and-trust-fund set has discovered these guys and thinks they’re kitschy?

11/4, 10 PM the Black Angels – who absolutely ripped up the Orensanz Center a month ago – at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, $20

11/4 we don’t usually list nights like this but there’s free whiskey upstairs at the Delancey from 10 to 11 while they screen vintage chicha footage (the club seems to want to start a night dedicated to metal cumbia, skaragga and rock en Espanol). Cool, huh?

11/4, 11 PM Vic Ruggiero, soulful frontman of the Slackers in a semi-rare solo show at Desmond’s

11/5, 7 PM the comedic, virtuosic Erin & Her Cello at the small room at the Rockwood

11/5, 8 PM at Dave Liebman and Randy Brecker with the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Philharmonic Orchestra performing John Coltrane’s “Meditations Suite” arranged by Gunnar Mossblad at Manhattan School of Music, 120 Claremont Avenue (Broadway and 122nd St).$10 adults; $5 srs/stud.

11/5, 9 PM the Dandy Warhols at the Bell House are SOLD OUT. Good for them.

11/6 a doublebill at the Parkside starting at 8 with – gasp – two jangly bands influenced by middle-period REM who actually don’t suck, the louder Cementhead followed by the janglier Electric Engine at 9

11/6 surf music night at Otto’s has been moved to the Delancey in the wake of the fire: for a cheap $5 cover you can see the amazingly multistylistic Tarantinos NYC at 9, the ferociously macabre Coffin Daggers at 11 and the equally intense El Muchacho at midnight.

11/6, 9 PM: Jay Banerjee & the Heartthrobs’ album (cd and vinyl!!) release show at Crash Mansion. Not only is Banerjee the best rock promoter in town (his Hipster Demolition Nights will be legendary someday), he’s also a first-class powerpop/janglerock songwriter with a Byrds fixation. Which is a very good thing. This typically first-class quadruple bill begins at 9 with the Neutron Drivers followed by the Naturals at 10, the Hotcakes at 11 and then Banerjee and his band at midnight

11/6 the most eclectic and entertaining klezmer revivalists on the planet, Metropolitan Klezmer at the Brooklyn Museum, free, 9 PM.

11/10, 8 PM Americana chanteuse Stephanie Finch followed by her longtime bandmate/mentor, guitar monster Chuck Prophet – one of the few players in the world who can solo for ten minutes straight and leave you wanting more – at Union Hall, $12.

11/10, 8 PM Carmen Staaf (piano, accordion) Kendall Eddy (acoustic bass) Austin McMahon (drums) at the Stone, $10; she does a duo show with bass legend Henry Grimes there at 10 for a $20 separate admission

11/10 Deer Tick at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, 9 PM, $17 adv tix. rec. at the Mercury box office.

11/10, 9:30 PM a “75th birthday celebration for Arvo Part and Giya Kancheli” with music of Part, Kancheli and Bach performed by Andrei Pushkarev, vibraphone and Andrius Zlabys, piano at le Poisson Rouge free w/rsvp

11/11, 7:30 PM Paul Rosenthal, violin and Kazuko Hayami, piano play sonatas by Bach, Taneyev and Beethoven at the marvelous Gilded Age confines of the Fabbri Library, 7 E 95th St.

11/11, 9 PM Hipster Demolition Night at Public Assembly: this one’s a powerpop-flavored extravaganza with the Jupiter Deluxe at 9, the punk/pop blaze of True Love at 10 and NYC’s best rock promoter, Jay Banerjee & the Heartthrobs doing their deliciously jangly, Byrds-tinged stuff at 11.

11/11-13, 8:30 PM it’s the Vital Vox fest of avant-garde vocal music at Issue Project Room, 8:30 PM, $10. The 11/11 program includes Inner Chapters performed by Jen Shyu; Songs for Double Bass and Voice by the Dirty Projectors’ Nat Baldwin; River of Painted Birds by Sabrina Lastman; and The Art of the Diff by Chris Mann.

11/13 this month’s edition of the Brooklyn County Fair at the Jalopy starts at 8 with free beer for an hour with $10 admission. Music starts at 8 with Savannah Sky, Blue Harvest, the brilliantly dark, psychedelic, paisley underground/outlaw country Newton Gang at 10, the equally eclectic honkytonk/Texas zydeco band the Doc Marshalls at 11 and the reliably surreal, smartly retro, western swing-tined Sean Kershaw & the New Jack Ramblers at midnight

11/13, 10 PM slashingly lyrical, cleverly retro new wave rockers the Larch followed by the recently reinvigorated artrock/funk/noiserock powerhouse System Noise at 11 at the Parkside.

11/13, 10 PM AwShockKiss play Sidewalk – fiery tuneful female-fronted anthemic rock with an 80s vibe that’s not cheesy. They played one of the year’s best triple bills earlier in the year with a couple of Canadian bands, if you can believe that.

11/18 the Hot Club of San Francisco play gypsy jazz at the Atrium at Lincoln Center, 7:30 PM arrival advised

11/18, 7:30 PM, “The second concert of this season’s Reflections Series takes us inside the celebrated Parisian salon of famed salonière Winnaretta Singer, heiress to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune. Music to be performed includes works commissioned by her, dedicated to her, or premiered at her salon by Ravel, Fauré, Stravinsky, Debussy, de Falla, Satie and Percy Grainger. Soprano Deborah Selig and pianist Donald Berman will join violinist Gil Morgenstern for this performance,” at WMP Concert Hall, 31 E 28th St., $25.

11/18, 7:30 PM altoist Marc McDonald leads a trio with Jim Ridl on piano and Sim Cain on drums at Miles Cafe

11/18, 8 PM Terry Dame (mastermind of the phenomenally psychedelic Electric Junkyard Gamelan) at Barbes playing new works on newly created instruments along with fellow instrument inventor Ken Butler and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck.

11/18 hilarious metal parody band Mighty High at Lit, 10:30 PM – last time they played a Manhattan gig the cops shut them down after 4 songs.

11/19, time TBA, the Amina Claudine Myers/Reggie Nichols Duo and the Wadada Leo Smith Silver Orchestra at Community Church of New York, 40 East 35th Street, $30/$15 srs/stud.

11/19 at Symphony Space, 7 PM (and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 11/20, 7 PM) the NY Phil’s CONTACT series features Alan Gilbert conducting the world premiere of a new work by Magnus Lindberg (a New York Philharmonic commission), and Gerard Grisey’s Quatre Chants Pour Franchir le Seuil, featuring soprano Barbara Hannigan at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, $20 adv tix highly rec., this will sell out.

11/19, 8 PM soulful twangy country-rock with the Karen Hudson River Band feat. special guest Deb O’Nair of garage rock legends the Fuzztones at Banjo Jim’s at 7 followed eventually at 9 by Austin noir cabaret cello/accordion duo Just Desserts.

11/21 the JC Hopkins Big Band open for Mose Allison at City Winery, 8 PM, $30 tix avail.

11/21 pianist Bobby Avey’s cd release show for his brilliant new one A New Face at the Cornelia St. Cafe, shows 8:45/10 PM, $10.

11/21 a stunning program of original Azeri music with jazz, Arabic and avant garde tinges: the cd release show for the latest one by violinist Sabina Rakcheyeva (the first Azeri to graduate from Juilliard) and her Ensemble, featuring Kinan Azmeh at Alwan for the Arts, 8 PM, $20

11/24, 8 PM paradigm-shifting pan-Asian avant garde siren Jen Shyu at Barbes, $10, early arrival advised, this will sell out quickly. You want fearless? There’s nobody more fearless on the mic than she is.

12/1, 4 PM at Galapagos composer Lisa Bielawa celebrates the releases of two new albums – Chance Encounter and In medias res. “The performance will feature music from both albums including selections from Bielawa’s Double Violin Concerto for violinist/vocalist Carla Kihlstedt and violinist Colin Jacobsen and from Chance Encounter for soprano Susan Narucki and the Knights, as well as Bielawa’s Synopses solo pieces for Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) members pianist Sarah Bob, percussionist Robert Schulz, and harpist Ina Zdorovetchi.” $15

12/1, 8 PM conscious hip-hop with the Peace Poets and Genesis Be, then intense hypnotic Iranian/American psychedelic rockers Haale and the Mast and then literate, politically aware songwriter Stephan Said at Drom, $15

12/3, 7:30 PM pianist Tatyana Sirota plays Beethoven and Schubert at the Third St. Music School Settlement auditorium, free.

12/3, 7:30 PM singer Lainie Fefferman’s Quartet “Phthia” – a quirky acoustic ensemble of all-star players (Sara Budde on clarinets; James Moore on banjo, guitar, and mandolin; and Missy Mazzoli on melodica) plus ubiquitously good avant clarinetist/reedman Ken Thomson and Slow Fast celebrate the release of their new CD It Would Be Easier If at the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, 124 Henry St., downtown Brooklyn, $10.

12/3, Andy Laster’s Yiash play arrangements of early 20th-Century Egyptian pop by Jewish composers Zaki Murad and Dawud Husni, among others, followed by the world premiere of Laster’s new string trio plus works for string quartet and quintet, 8:30 PM at Roulette.

12/4, 8 PM a choreographed baroque/contemporary concert by Anthony Roth Costanzo, countertenor, with Joelle Harvey, soprano and the Second Instrumental Unit, that “explores human expression as conceived in baroque terms. Incorporating music, dance, and spoken text, the evening touches upon three questions: How can we communicate our deepest hollows? How can we start a conversation between the internal and the external? How can we make pain beautiful?” Yikes! $20 at Abigail Adams Smith Auditorium, 417 E 61st St. between York and First Ave.

12/4 Unsteady Freddie’s monthly surf rock show returns triumphantly to the now-reopened Otto’s; show starts at 9 with Preston Wayne, the Surfalicious Dudes at 10, the North Shore Troubadours at 11 and Thee Icepicks at midnight.

12/5, 4:30 PM the Chiara String Quartet plays Gorecki’s String Quartet No. 2 and Huang Ruo’s Calligraffiti (World Premiere) at Galapagos, $15. It’s the second in the ongoing series of Creator/Curator concerts where the Chiaras play a new commission plus other material chosen by the composer.

12/5, 8 PM the gorgeous retro country harmonies of the Sweetback Sisters at the Jalopy, $10

12/8-9, 9 PM witty oldschool country followed by one of the more popular alt-country bands of the 90s: Hayes Carll followed by the Old 97s at Bowery Ballroom (SOLD OUT), $25. Tix still available for the 12/10 show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg for the same price.

12/9, 9 PM Americana rocker Serena Jean followed by the surprisingly intricate country sounds of the Basement Band at Spike Hill.

12/10, 7 PM captivating noir rocker Peg Simone at Bowery Poetry Club.

12/10 Tommy Ramone’s Americana duo Uncle Monk at 7 PM at Banjo Jim’s followed eventually by the Big Star style sounds of the Nu-Sonics at 9

12/10, 8ish a heavenly noiserock night with the Sediment Club, Nice Face at 9ish, K-Holes at 10ish and Woman – whose screaming noir blues/noise album from last year was one of our favorites – headlining at 11 or so at Death by Audio.

12/10, 8 PM House of Stride with Allison Leyton-Brown – piano; Russ Meissner – drums; Jim Whitney – upright bass and special guest Daria Grace at Barbes followed at 10 by Red Baraat and their Indian brass band madness.

12/12, 8 PM and repeating 12/13 at 2 PM Gamelan Dharma Swara play their annual holiday concert featuring music from this year’s Bali concert tour/competition at the Indonesian Consulate, 5 East 68th St. between 5th and Madison. The program will include “‘a performance of Kebyar Legong, the famously challenging 30 minute dance work of the virtuosic kebyar repertoire, the first time the complete work, composed in the 1920s by I Wayan Wendres, will be performed outside of Bali’” These concerts sell out fast, get your tickets now.

12/13, 7 PM at Galapagos the American Modern Ensemble presents “an evening of sextets by eight of America’s most talented composers under 40” incl. A Matter of Truth by New York’s own Hannah Lash, OK Feel Good by Jonathan Newman and Robert Paterson’s Sextet, inspired by criminals on Route 66 as well as Action Figure by Washington DC based composer Armando Bayolo and Haiku Catharsis by Philadelphia composer David Ludwig, as well as Chris Chandler’s the resonance after…, the winning work of AME’s Fifth Annual Composition Competition. All of the composers will be in the audience, $20

12/15, 9:30 PM at the Tank: Dialogues of Silence by Sabrina Lastman, Armored Old Banger by Marcos Wasem & Out of the Word, into the Sound by Ernesto Estrella Cózar: existentialist multiamedia poetry; poems based on excerpts taken from interviews to Israeli soldiers on duty in checkpoints in the occupied territories during the 02-03 intifada and sonically reprocessed poems from the Hispanic tradition, $10

12/16, 10:30 PM AwShockKiss at the Mercury, $10. Retro 80s anthemic pop in the best possible retro way – good tunes, catchy choruses, a soulful, fiery frontwoman in Kiri Jewell and smart songwriting by multi-instrumentalist Stef Bassett. Last spring they played one of the best shows we’ve seen this year.

12/17 the Boss Guitars play surf classics and obscurities at Lakeside, 11 PM

12/18 this year’s New York area Unsilent Night procession takes place on December 18, leaving at 7 PM at the arch at Washington Square Park and marching to Tompkins Square Park. Arrival by about 6:40 PM is advised.

12/18 at Trash hilarious, ferocious anti-gentrification rockers the Brooklyn What’s monthly kick-ass rock night starting with the Proud Humans at 8 followed by New Atlantic Youth, Pistols 40 Paces, the Highway Gimps (the missing link between My Bloody Valentine and Motorhead), the Brooklyn What and then Mussles. Open bar on PBR/wells from 8-9. What a great night.

12/18, midnight, lyrical Americana rocker Derek James and band at the big room at the Rockwood. His first album was excellent. His second one was beautifully produced but not so good. Worth seeing what he’s up to now.

12/21, 9 PM charming, virtuosic oldtimey swing/blues band Lake Street Dive at the small room of the Rockwood followed by torchy chanteuse Marilyn Carino and bassist Ben Rubin of Mudville – who sound like Goldfrapp but better – at 11.

12/28-30 the annual rent party at the Stone. A cynic would say this is a lot of usual suspects – but it’s a hell of a cast of suspects! Ned Rothenberg, Sylvie Courvoisier, Dave Douglas, Peter Evans, Erik Friedlander, Brandon Ross, Zeena Parkins, etc., and John Zorn leading the jams. $20, sets at 8/10 PM, check the club calendar for the various nights’ lineups.

12/31 at Puppets Jazz Bar “legendary jazz all-stars playing all night long” which is no joke – and it’s free and you get champagne at midnight, no cover but donations to help pay the rent are gladly accepted

12/31 the most lyrical and probably most cost-effective New Years Eve show is Black 47 at Connolly’s – they’re just far enough away from Times Square amateur city for you to make your getaway via an east side train.

12/31 the gypsiest New Years Eve show is at Mehanata with Kagero at 9:30 PM.

12/31 the most goth New Years Eve show in NYC is Kristin Hoffmann and NLX at Caffe Vivaldi, 10ish

12/31 the most bang for your buck New Years Eve show is at Maxwell’s with the Detroit Cobras at 10:30 followed by the Fleshtones, $20 adv tix at the club and at Other Music.

12/31 the only possibly tourist/gentrifier-free New Years Eve show in the East Village is Tammy Faye Starlite’s side-splittingly funny Stones cover band the Mike Hunt Band at Lakeside, 11 PM

12/31 this year’s most danceable New Years Eve show is retro 60s latin soul/bugalu revivalists Spanglish Fly at Barbes, 11 PM, $15.

12/31 if you want to avoid the tourists on the LES on New Years Eve, the Birdhive Boys are playing bluegrass at the National Underground, 11 PM

2/2 Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica, the “world’s only ensemble dedicated to the space-age big band music of Juan Garcia Esquivel,” 8 PM at Barbes.

2/4/11, 9 PM jazz/third-stream chanteuse/composer Sara Serpa with a first-rate band: Andre Matos- guitar; Kris Davis- piano; Matt Brewer-bass; Tommy Crane- drums, at the Cornelia St. Cafe. Serpa is scary-good, one of the most original singers and writers in any style around these days: her latest album with noir jazz piano legend Rank Blake is transcendent.

We have a more updated calendar for November and December right here. A few things you should know about this calendar: acts are listed here in order of appearance, NOT headliner first and supporting acts after; showtimes listed here are actual set times, not the time doors open. If a listing here says something like ”9 PM-ish,” chances are it’ll run late. Cover charges are those listed on bands’ and venues’ sites: always best to click on the band link provided or go to the venues page for confirmation since we get much of this info weeks in advance. As always, weekly events first followed by the daily listings:

Sundays through May of 2011 the series of free organ concerts at 5:15 PM continues most every week (holidays excepted) at St. Thomas Church, 53rd St. and 5th Ave.

Sundays in November steampunk goddess Bliss Blood of the Moonlighters plays with her new project Evanescent feat. Al Street (of Spacemen 3) on guitar at Bruar Falls starting at 8ish along with featured performers including Jamie Scandal, Craig Robertson, J. Walter Hawkes,Al Duvall, Not Waving But Drowning, the Ukemen and Marni Rice. Essentially, this is Small Beast relocated to Williamsburg. Kudos to Bliss for bringing so much coolness to such an unexpected location.

Stephane Wrembel plays Sundays at Barbes at 9. He’s something of an institution here, plan on arriving EARLY, 45 minutes early isn’t too soon since the whole bar gets packed fast. The guitarist has few if any equals as an interpreter of Django Reinhardt, but it’s where he takes the gypsy jazz influence in his own remarkably original, psychedelic writing – and what he brings to the Django stuff – that makes all the difference. One of the most interesting players in any style of music, anywhere in the world.

Every Sunday the Ear-Regulars, led by trumpeter Jon Kellso and (frequently) guitarist Matt Munisteri play NYC’s only weekly hot jazz session starting around 8 PM at the Ear Inn on Spring St. Hard to believe, in the city that springboarded the careers of thousands of jazz legends, but true. This is by far the best value in town for marquee-caliber jazz: for the price of a drink and a tip for the band, you can see world-famous players (and brilliant obscure ones) you’d usually have to drop $100 for at some big-ticket room. The material is mostly old-time stuff from the 30s and 40s, but the players (especially Kellso and Munisteri, who have a chemistry that goes back several years) push it into some deliciously unexpected places.

Every Sunday, hip-hop MC Big Zoo hosts the long-running End of the Weak rap showcase at the Pyramid, 9 PM, admission $5 before 10, $7 afterward. This is one of the best places to discover some of the hottest under-the-radar hip-hop talent, both short cameos as well as longer sets from both newcomers and established vets.

Mondays at the Fat Cat the Choi Fairbanks String Quartet play a wide repertoire of chamber music from Bach to Shostakovich starting at 7.

Mondays starting a little after 7 PM Howard Williams leads his Jazz Orchestra from the piano at the Garage, 99 7th Ave. S at Grove St. There are also big bands here most every Tuesday at 7.

Mondays at the Jazz Standard it’s all Mingus, whether with the Mingus Orchestra, Big Band or Mingus Dynasty: you know the material and the players are all first rate. Sets 7:30/9:30 PM, $25 and worth it.

Mondays at the Delancey on the main floor, 8:30 PMish it’s Small Beast, NYC’s edgiest and most vital rock and rock-oriented scene, founded by Botanica frontman and master of menace Paul Wallfisch. It’s an international mix of some of the most intelligent (and frequently darkest) performers passing through town. It’s free and there’s always some kind of drink special or freebee. If you wish Tonic was still open, the Beast is keeping the flame alive.

Also Monday nights Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks, a boisterous horn-driven 11-piece 1920s/early 30’s band play Sofia’s Restaurant, downstairs at the Edison Hotel, 221 West 46th Street between Broadway & 8th Ave., 3 sets from 8 to 11, surprisingly cheap $15 cover plus $15 minimum considering what you’re getting. Even before the Flying Neutrinos or the Moonlighters, multi-instrumentalist Giordano was pioneering the oldtimey sound in New York; his long-running residency at the old Cajun on lower 8th Ave. is legendary. He also gets a ton of film work (Giordano wrote the satirical number that Willie Nelson famously sang in Wag the Dog).

Mondays at Tea Lounge in Park Slope at 9 PM trombonist/composer JC Sanford books big band jazz, an exciting, global mix of some of the edgiest large-ensemble sounds around. If you’re anybody in the world of big band jazz and you make it to New York, you end up playing here: what CBGB was to punk, this unlikely spot promises to be to the jazz world. No cover.

Also Mondays in November the Barbes house band, Chicha Libre plays there starting around 9:30. They’ve singlehandedly resurrected an amazing subgenre, chicha, which was popular in the Peruvian Amazon in the late 60s and early 70s. With electric accordion, cuatro, surf guitar and a slinky but boisterous rhythm section, their mix of obscure classics and originals is one of the funnest, most danceable things you’ll witness this year.

Also Mondays in November Rev. Vince Anderson and his band play Union Pool in Williamsburg, two sets starting around 11 PM. The Rev. is one of the great keyboardists around, equally thrilling on organ or electric piano, an expert at Billy Preston style funk, honkytonk, gospel and blues. He writes very funny, very politically astute, frequently salacious original songs and is one of the most charismatic, intense live performers of our time. It’s a crazy dance party til past three in the morning. Paula Henderson from Burnt Sugar is the lead soloist on baritone sax, with Dave Smith from Smoota and the Fela pit band on trombone, with frequent special guests.

The second and fourth Tuesday of the month there are free organ concerts at half past noon at Central Synagogue, 652 Lexington Ave @ 55th St. curated by celebrated organ adventurer Gail Archer, a global mix of veteran and up-and-coming talent.

Tuesdays in November Balkan brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party play Barbes at 9. Get here as soon as you can as they’re very popular.

Tuesdays Julia Haltigan plays 11th St. Bar at 10 “for the rest of her life.” A nuanced, cleverly lyrical country/Americana chanteuse with a terrific band behind her and a growing catalog of first-class original songs. See her now before it costs you big bucks at the Beacon.

Tuesdays in November the Dred Scott Trio play astonishingly smart, dark piano jazz at the smaller room at the Rockwood at midnight.

10/3, 7 PM a Django Reinhardt tribute will get very original and even livelier than the guy they’re celebrating with Stephane Wrembel followed by Balval at Drom, $15 or free with $30 weeklong festival pass

10/3 acoustic Americana jamband Tall Tall Trees at 9 PM at the Jalopy followed by the oldtimey Wiyos, $15. The Wiyos are also at Joe’s Pub on 7/22 at at 7 for $15 also.

10/3 the NYCity Slickers play bluegrass at Rodeo Bar, 10:30 PM; they’re also at Banjo Jim’s on 10/19 at 9 and back here on 10/24.

10/4, 7:45 sharp the NYC premiere of director Miao Wang’s new film Beijing Taxi with original score by Stephen Ulrich – this generation’s Bernard Herrmann – and Itamar Ziegler at the IFC Theatre, 6th Ave. and W 3rd St., including a live performance by Ulrich Ziegler.

10/5, 8 PM Sarah Kirkland Snider and Missy Mazzoli together with a chamber ensemble performing three New York City premieres, including Snider’s “Shiner” and “The Reserved, The Reticent” – a solo cello piece to be performed by Clarice Jensen of ACME – as well as Mazzoli’s “Death Valley Junction,” at Galapagos.

10/7 intense, literate psychedelic 60s pop revivalists McGinty & White (that’s Joe McGinty on keys and Ward White on guitar) at 8 PM at Bowery Electric playing their own set and then backing East Village new wave legend Kristian Hoffman, who is Rufus Wainwright’s musical director and was a longtime Klaus Nomi collaborator.

10/9, 9 PM Shmaptain Sheefheart (Beefheart cover band feat. members of Love Camp 7 and Plastic Beef) followed by the Nopar King at 9:45, groovy funkmeisters Baby Daddy at 10:30, then more Nopar King and Shmaptain S. plus a Beatles/Lennon jam in honor of his 70th birthday at 1 AM at 3 Jolly Pigeons, 6802 3rd Ave., Bay Ridge, Brooklyn

10/10, 7 PM at Barbes: “Asmira Woodward-Page. The Australian violinist will present works for solo violin as well as with the Momenta Quartet. The program will draw from a wide variety of composers with an emphasis on contemporary composers and a special focus on Indonesian music.”

10/11 at Barbes 7 PM: “Adela y Lupita….is Mireya Ramo (violin/bass/vocal), and Shae Fiol (vocals/guitar/vihuela). They are Inspired by classic Mexican duets such as Las Hermanas Huertas or Lena y Lola but unlike their illustrious models, the two women are also phenomenal instrumentalists. While indebted to the the folk traditions, Adely y Lupita also draws from their background in contemporary music.” Followed by our favorite chicha band Chicha Libre at 9:30ish

10/12, 8:30 PM at the Tank “Janel & Anthony, an experimental cello and guitar duo comb their knowledge of jazz, surf, rock, free improvisation, Japanese traditional music, as well as western, Persian and Indian classical music.”

10/13, 7:30 PM the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble – whose compositions lately have been as smart and memorable as his live shows – at Littlefield. Check this out – all ages: over 21: $14 (+$6 drink min.), under 21: $10 (+$3 drink min.).

10/13, 8 PM virtuosically eclectic Russian/gypsy/tango/jazz behemoth Ljova & the Kontraband at the Stone, $10, early arrival advised, this will sell out

10/14, 7:30 PM smartly lyrical songwriter Kirsten Williams with the reliably phenomenal Andy Mattina on bass followed at 8:30 by Liza Garelik and Ian Roure, brain trust of the Larch (whose latest album Larix Americana is one of the year’s best) at the Parkside

10/14, 8 PM Chicha Libre play the cd release show for the surfy, psychedelic Peruvian music anthology The Roots of Chicha 2 – arguably the best album of 2010 – at Zebulon.

10/14 this month’s Hipster Demolition Night, arguably the best rock show of the year, starts at 8 at Public Assembly with Jay Banerjee & the Heartthrobs – the missing link between the Byrds and the Raspberries – followed by the garage intensity of the Neutron Drivers and the Doughboys, ferociously smart, funny, anti-gentrification punk rockers the Brooklyn What and oldschool 60s soul rockers Love Struck headlining at midnight.

10/14 Metropolitan Klezmer, the world’s most stylistically diverse klezmer band – ecstatic experts in film music, latin music, dirges, freilachs, you name it – 8:30 PM at the Atrium at Lincoln Center, free, get there at least a half hour early or get shut out.

10/14 at midnight the Xylopholks – in their day-glo furry suits, playing vibraphone versions of oldtimey swing jazz – at the big room at the Rockwood

10/15, 7 PM Clash collaborator and Paradise by the Dashboard Light girl Ellen Foley at Lakeside; also here on 10/29 at 7.

10/15, 7:30 PM the Cassatt Quartet plays music by contemporary Mexican composers including Altar de Muertos by Gabriela Ortiz, and the premiere of Cartas de Frida, by Samuel Zyman at Symphony Space, $29 tix rec, $15 under 30/$10 stud/srs.

10/15-16 the Cookers: Billy Harper, Eddie Henerson, James Spaulding, David Weiss, Geri Allen (sitting in for George Cables), Cecil McBee & Billy Hart – who have a killer new album out – at Iridium, 8:30/10:30 PM, $30.

10/16 starting at 2 PM at Issue Project Room: the Drone Marathon. “Electric Temple will present a day-long musical event focusing on contemporary performers working with long sustained tones and sounds. The program will feature six musicians curating segments of the event.”

10/16, 7 PM pioneering new-music chamber trio Janus at Joe’s Pub playing the cd release show for their new one I Am Not.

10/16, 8 PM the first day of this year’s Django festival at the Jalopy starts at 8 with the Hot Club of Hell’s Kitchen, followed by the Hot Club Thing, Luke Hendon Trio, Stephane Wrembel and then at midnight the Blue Plate Special, $TBA.

10/18, 9ish ex-Mephiskapheles alto sax player Alexander McCabe plays the cd release show for his gorgeously retro new one Quiz at Rosie O’Grady’s Limerick Bar, 149 W. 46th St.

10/18, 7:30 PM, Trio Hotteterre (Immanuel Davis, baroque flute; Motomi Igarashi, viola da gamba; Dongsok Shin, harpsichord, a “new baroque instrument trio will perform works by French composers of the 18th century. Even if you are a fan of period instruments, you may never have heard this music performed live on a French style flute, gamba, and Franco/Flemish harpsichord at French pitch (a whole tone below modern pitch!).” Works by Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, Jacques Morel, Louis de Caix d’Hervelois and François Couperin at Advent/ Broadway Church, 2504 Broadway at 93rd St.

10/18, 10 PM fiery, lyrical noir rock siren Randi Russo and band at Bowlmor Lanes, 110 University Place (12th & 13th Sts), $7 or $24 for the show and unlimited bowling

Starting 10/19 noisy, edgy female-fronted dancepunk band Deluka are in town for Colossal Musical Joke a.k.a. CMJ. Four shows. They’re at the Delancey on 10/19, at Matchless on 10/20, at Fontana’s on 10/22 and at Bowery Electric on 10/23.

10/23, 8:30 PM at Roulette “experimental kotoist Miya Masaoka premieres a new work for two kotos with Akiko Sasaki, and Channeling Scelsi, an interpretation of his 1965 composition Ygghur originally written for cello and arranged for 25 string koto; new work for Laser Koto.” $15

10/23, the North American debut of Norwegian darkwave band S K L S, 8:30 PM at Issue Project Room, $10.

10/23 Egyptian vintage film music revivalists Zikrayat with Salma Habib on vocals and Youssef Kassab on percussion playing material from their new album Cinematic at Alwan for the Arts, 9 PM, $20 adv tix highly rec.

10/26, 8:30 PM Susan & Elaine Hoffman Watts, who have “the deepest bulgar groove on the planet” make a rare appearance outside their native Philadelphia at the Sixth St. Synagogue, $15 includes a drink. This is sort of the klezmer equivalent of a Carter Family visit to New York. Elaine is one of the world’s great drum legends and a repository of centuries of klezmer knowledge, early arrival a must, this will sell out.

10/26, 8:30 PM horror movies with new soundtracks at the Tank: Whitney George leads her chamber orchestra though her scores to the 1928 films The Curiosity Cabinet, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Tell-Tale Heart, Jay Vilnai’s Vampire Suit does Nosferatu (great choice of composer!!!) and “Nicholas Nelson will present an all electronic score to the 1938 short ‘How to Undress in Front of Your Husband.’” $10 adv tix highly rec.

10/29, 7:30 PM at Alice Tully Hall, Alondra de la Parra conducts the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas doing a rare US performance of the complete Carlos Chávez Caballos de Vapor Suite; Aaron Copland’s A Lincoln Portrait (Chris Noth, narrator) and Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra , tix $15/up. Their new cd reached #2 on the pop charts in Mexico, the first time a classical recording cracked the top 100 there!

10/30, 8 PM at Symphony Space a dynamite choice of Halloween show with Alessandra Belloni and I Giuliari di Piazza doing witches’ dances and all sorts of sepulchral singing and dancing from ancient Italy

10/30, 8 PM Cypress Hill at the Nokia Theatre, $36.50 – almost as expensive as a bag of weed – did we just say “substance abuse?”

10/30, 9 PM a steampunk big band doublebill with Drew Nugent & the Midnight Society followed by Michael Arenella & the Dreamland Orchestra playing a pre-Halloween show at the Green Building, 450 Union St. in Brooklyn, $20, F/G to Carroll St.

10/31, 11 PM System Noise play Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust album all the way through at the Producers Club at 44th St. and 9th Ave., discount tix $15 at showclix.com with promotional code “starman.” These shows are legendary and this one will sell out. Refunds for tix at the previously scheduled venue, the now-shuttered 45 Bleecker Theatre are available from broadwayoffers.com.

11/4, 6 PM a screening of Fred Zara’s new documentary film Average Community about Italian-American kids in decaying NJ cities in the punk and hardcore scenes, at the John D. Calandra Italian-American Institute, 25 W 43rd St. (5th/6th Ave.).

11/4, 8 PM, an amazing Middle Eastern-flavored triplebill: vintage Egyptian film music revivalists Zikrayat, rockers Raquy & the Cavemen and then hypnotic groove/trance band Copal playing the cd release for their new one at Drom, $15 adv tix highly rec.

11/4 bluegrass band Hot Rize play their first NYC show in ten years at B.B. King’s, 9 PM, $25 adv tix rec.

11/4, 9 PM DIY rock legend R. Stevie Moore followed by the equally legendary Brute Force playing the cd release show for the reissue of his 1967 debut album (also including bonus tracks including the legendary banned single The King of Fuh, produced by George Harrison), at Secret Project Robot, 210 Kent Ave. (corner of River St., enter through the loading dock), Williamsburg. Does this mean that the bedhead-and-trust-fund set has discovered these guys and thinks they’re kitschy?

11/6 a doublebill at the Parkside starting at 8 with – gasp – two jangly bands influenced by middle-period REM who actually don’t suck, the louder Cementhead followed by the janglier Electric Engine at 9

11/6 surf music night at Otto’s has been moved to the Delancey in the wake of the fire: for a cheap $5 cover you can see the amazingly multistylistic Tarantinos NYC at 9, the ferociously macabre Coffin Daggers at 11 and the equally intense El Muchacho at midnight.

11/6, 9 PM: Jay Banerjee & the Heartthrobs’ cd release show at Crash Mansion. Not only is Banerjee the best rock promoter in town (his Hipster Demolition Nights will be legendary someday), he’s also a first-class powerpop/janglerock songwriter with a Byrds fixation. Which is a very good thing. This typically first-class quadruple bill begins at 9 with the Neutron Drivers followed by the Naturals at 10, the Hotcakes at 11 and then Banerjee and his band at midnight

11/6 the most eclectic and entertaining klezmer revivalists on the planet, Metropolitan Klezmer at the Brooklyn Museum, free, 9 PM.

11/6 Dance and Music Performance – Raqs Arabi: Karim Nagi and the Arab Dance Seminar at Alwan for the Arts, 9 PM, $20.

11/10, 8 PM Americana chanteuse Stephanie Finch followed by her longtime bandmate/mentor, guitar monster Chuck Prophet – one of the few players in the world who can solo for ten minutes straight and leave you wanting more – at Union Hall, $12

11/11, 7:30 PM Paul Rosenthal, violin and Kazuko Hayami, piano play sonatas by Bach, Taneyev and Beethoven at the marvelous Gilded Age confines of the Fabbri Library, 7 E 95th St.

11/11-13, 8:30 PM it’s the Vital Vox fest of avant-garde vocal music at Issue Project Room, 8:30 PM, $10. The 11/11 program includes Inner Chapters performed by Jen Shyu; Songs for Double Bass and Voice by the Dirty Projectors’ Nat Baldwin; River of Painted Birds by Sabrina Lastman; and The Art of the Diff by Chris Mann.

11/18 the Hot Club of San Francisco play gypsy jazz at the Atrium at Lincoln Center, 7:30 PM arrival advised

11/18, 7:30 PM, “The second concert of this season’s Reflections Series takes us inside the celebrated Parisian salon of famed salonière Winnaretta Singer, heiress to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune. Music to be performed includes works commissioned by her, dedicated to her, or premiered at her salon by Ravel, Fauré, Stravinsky, Debussy, de Falla, Satie and Percy Grainger. Soprano Deborah Selig and pianist Donald Berman will join violinist Gil Morgenstern for this performance,” at WMP Concert Hall, 31 E 28th St., $25.

11/18, 8 PM Terry Dame (mastermind of the phenomenally psychedelic Electric Junkyard Gamelan) at Barbes playing new works on newly created instruments along with fellow instrument inventor Ken Butler and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck

11/19, time TBA, the Amina Claudine Myers/Reggie Nichols Duo and the Wadada Leo Smith Silver Orchestra at Community Church of New York, 40 East 35th Street, $30/$15 srs/stud.

11/19 at Symphony Space, 7 PM (and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 11/20, 7 PM) the NY Phil’s CONTACT series features Alan Gilbert conducting the world premiere of a new work by Magnus Lindberg (a New York Philharmonic commission), and Gerard Grisey’s Quatre Chants Pour Franchir le Seuil, featuring soprano Barbara Hannigan at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, $20 adv tix highly rec., this will sell out

11/19, 8 PM soulful twangy country-rock with the Karen Hudson River Band feat. special guest Deb O’Nair of the Fuzztones at Banjo Jim’s at 7 followed eventually at 9 by Austin noir cabaret cello/accordion duo Just Desserts.

11/19, 8 PM Gyan Riley (Terry’s talented guitarist kid) at Barbes.

11/19, 10ish a cool study in contrasts: funk madness with the MK Groove Orchestra followed by the hypnotic atmospherics of Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber at Coco 66

12/11, 8 PM Nellie McKay playing stuff from her new one Home Sweet Mobile Home at Highline Ballroom, $20 adv tix rec.

12/11 Amazigh Music of Morocco at Alwan for the Arts

12/12, 8 PM and repeating 12/13 at 2 PM Gamelan Dharma Swara play their annual holiday concert featuring music from this year’s Bali concert tour/competition at the Indonesian Consulate, 5 East 68th St. between 5th and Madison. The program will include “‘a performance of Kebyar Legong, the famously challenging 30 minute dance work of the virtuosic kebyar repertoire, the first time the complete work, composed in the 1920s by I Wayan Wendres, will be performed outside of Bali’” These concerts sell out fast, get your tickets now.

12/31 the most lyrical and probably most cost-effective New Years Eve show is Black 47 at Connolly’s – they’re just far enough away from Times Square amateur city for you to make your getaway via an east side train.

12/31 this year’s most danceable New Years Eve show is retro 60s latin soul/bugalu revivalists Spanglish Fly at Barbes, 11 PM, $15

1/7-8/11 Winter Jazzfest is coming; just to give you a heads-up, last year’s (known as the Undead Jazz Festival) was amazing by all accounts.

About

Welcome to Lucid Culture, a New York-based music blog active since 2007. You can scroll down for a brief history and explanation of what we do here. To help you get around this site, here are some links which will take you quickly to our most popular features:

If you’re wondering where all the rock music coverage here went, it’s moved to our sister blog New York Music Daily.

April, 2007 – Lucid Culture debuts as the online version of a somewhat notorious New York music and politics e-zine. After a brief flirtation with blogging about global politics, we begin covering the dark fringes of the New York rock scene that the indie rock blogosphere and the corporate media find too frightening, too smart or too unfashionable. “Great music that’s not trendy” becomes our mantra.

2008-2009 – jazz, classical and world music become an integral part of coverage here. Our 666 Best Songs of All Time list becomes a hit, as do our year-end lists for best songs, best albums and best New York area concerts.

2011 – one of Lucid Culture’s founding members creates New York Music Daily, a blog dedicated primarily to rock music coverage from a transgressive, oldschool New York point of view, with Lucid Culture continuing to cover music that’s typically more lucid and cultured.

2012-13 – Lucid Culture eases into its current role as New York Music Daily’s jazz and classical annex.